


Stopping at the Shelter

by completelyhopeless



Series: Detective Grayson and Forensic Batgirl Case Two [3]
Category: DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe, Case Fic, F/M, Gen, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 12:52:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3382235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/completelyhopeless/pseuds/completelyhopeless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While looking for Tim's witness and friend, he and Dick meet up with Barbara and Amy at Alfred's shelter. Barbara hooks Amy on Alfred's coffee and Dick just might have a partner after all this is said and done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stopping at the Shelter

**Author's Note:**

> I hesitated to start this because being sick was interfering with knowing what to write and if it was any good, and I hope this isn't too bad. I kind of liked the bonding even though it should be a bit more focused on the case.

* * *

“If anything goes wrong,” Barbara said, parking her car in front of the shelter, “this is where you want to be.”

Amy gave the building an appraising look. She didn't dismiss it right away, but Barbara had to wonder if her husband was a builder and what Amy was looking for was a structural fault. She unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out of the car, leading the way into Alfred's shelter. She didn't wait for Amy to follow. The other woman could find her way, and she would rather head at least one occupant of the shelter off before he spoke to Amy.

“I think if I brought my husband here, he'd want to donate free labor,” Amy observed, joining Barbara in the hall before any of the shelter residents could reach her. “It's a good thing he's not here. I might never get him back home.”

Barbara smiled at that, but the smile fell as soon as the other door opened and she found Damian glaring at her. “Where is Grayson?”

“I don't know.”

“You lie. You are his tart, are you not? You know where he is.”

Barbara heard Amy snort behind her, and she knew her own cheeks were red. She shouldn't let anything Damian said get to her, but it was still embarrassing. She hated the idea of Amy hearing it, but she'd expected it—she'd hoped to avoid it by getting past Damian first, but of course that hadn't worked.

“I am _not_ Dick's—I am Dick's _friend,_ not anything else, and if you want to stay his friend yourself, you'll watch what you say about the people he cares about.”

“Indeed,” Alfred said. “The best way to alienate the one you seek to impress is to insult the ones he highly esteems. Putting them down does not elevate you. Rather to the contrary, I've found, especially with Master Richard. He comes from humble people and is himself quite possessed of that quality. He sees very little use in vanity or pride.”

Damian glared at him. Barbara smiled. “It's good to see you, Alfred. I hope he's not always like this for you.”

“I suppose he has been worse,” Alfred agreed, earning another glare, “but mainly on the days when Richard is not free to visit.”

“Which is almost every day,” Barbara said, almost laughing. “Dick is always working. I don't think he's been home in days. I'm just fortunate he started keeping a toothbrush in the lab weeks ago or I'd really have trouble with him being there.”

“Then he's still not sleeping?”

“No.” Barbara shook her head, turning back to Amy. “I'm sorry. Damian managed to distract us again. It happens. Amy, this is Alfred Pennyworth. He runs the shelter here, and like I said, if anything goes wrong, this is where you want to be. Alfred, this is Amy Rohrbach. She's a new transfer into the department, and maybe if she hasn't been warned away by everything we've said about Dick so far, she'll end up working with him.”

“I'm not easily frightened. I lived in Blüdhaven.”

Alfred nodded. “Ah, yes. I am afraid that is far from a pleasant city, though I cannot think Gotham is much better. I only hope that between my work and that of Doctor Thompkins we help some of the city have a better life.”

“You are practically a saint,” Barbara told him with a smile. “Especially after you agreed to take on that one.”

“I could hardly turn down someone so determined to stay by Richard's side, and it does give me the added bonus of seeing him more often, which almost makes up for Damian's... peculiarities.”

“I should never have promised Grayson that I would not kill any of you,” Damian muttered, turning away from them.

Amy frowned. “Well, there goes arranging any playdates with my kids.”

Barbara couldn't help it. She laughed.

* * *

“Dick?”

Torn between turning up the radio so he could stall the conversation he knew was coming and trying to pay attention to the road while his mind went in fifty different directions, Dick held back a sigh and tightened his grip on the wheel. “What?”

“Do you think Stephanie is... dead?”

Dick had really been hoping to avoid that question. He didn't want to think about what could have happened to that girl. He was a cop. He knew the statistics. He knew all the bad parts of the city, the sickness that lurked underneath its dirty facade, he knew what horrible things could happen to kids here, knew what _had_ happened to kids here, to himself and to Jason and to others, but he still wanted to hold onto some kind of hope for Tim's friend.

He wasn't the only one starting to lose it. Every new place Tim took him trying to find the girl—her home, her school, her favorite park, and other places where they'd met up—Tim's blushing when he tried to stress that they weren't _dates_ was rather adorable—made the likelihood of the girl's continued survival smaller and smaller. Tim was getting closer and closer to tears, fidgeting with fear. Dick didn't know how to reassure him without making promises he might not be able to keep.

“I don't know, Tim. It's possible she's rotating to places we've already checked. It's also possible that she's somewhere else in the city—Gotham is big, and we can't check everywhere ourselves.”

“And she could have been captured.”

“Yes. She could have been.”

Tim let out a breath. “Do you think it's my fault? I gave her my shirt and—”

“And that somehow makes her a target?” Dick shook his head. “No. It doesn't. You know that the men you were photographing, the ones we were worried about, they're all in jail now. Kowlinski and the other crooked cops were arrested as well as most of the Maroni crime family. They can't have come after you, and even if they did, they don't know that ugly sweater I gave you.”

“It's not ugly.”

“Babs says it is.”

Tim looked at him. “Oh, so because Babs says it's ugly it's suddenly hideous? You know you've got it bad, Dick. Really bad.”

Dick shrugged. “I like her a lot. She's my friend.”

“Yeah. Your _friend.”_

“She's the one that doesn't want it to be more,” Dick said. He turned the car into the parking lot and took the first space he could find. He turned off the engine and looked over at Tim. “Come on. If she's smart, Stephanie will be here. This is a safe place for everyone.”

“I hope so. I just... what if she's not, Dick? What do we do then?”

“We start looking in other places,” Dick answered. He put his hand on the door handle. “This isn't over yet. Don't give up. This is only the beginning. I haven't done much with my investigation, and the tests weren't done on the forensics, either. We still have options. For now, though, I want to talk to Alfred.”

“About Damian?”

Dick sighed. “You're not really jealous of him, are you?”

“Well...”

“Tim, you are ten times better off than Damian is. You have a home. You have your parents—yeah, I know they're not around much and they don't show they love you like they should, but you weren't forced to be an assassin from a young age and then abandoned when you wouldn't kill someone they wanted dead. You are much better off. You have Alfred to look out for you. You have me. You even have Bruce to give you work when he shouldn't. Damian... he doesn't have anyone and he doesn't even realize he's missing everything by pushing people away.”

“I guess.”

“Look, I don't have a lot of free time these days—the department is understaffed and overworked—but I promise we'll get together for... I don't know, a game, I guess, or maybe a movie. I just don't have a lot of time right now, and I _need_ to focus on this case. I am going to find Stephanie, okay?”

“Okay.”

* * *

“This coffee...”

“I do a spectral analysis on it almost every time Dick brings it by my lab, but I still haven't figured out how to make it like Alfred does,” Barbara admitted. She cradled her own cup in her hands, telling herself that she should get back to the lab. She'd only meant to show Amy where the shelter was and introduce her to Alfred, and that was all done. Barbara had work to do, and she needed to get back to that. “I don't know what he does to it, but it is _amazing.”_

“I have never had anything this good,” Amy agreed, breathing in the aroma. “Then again, I've been working in Blüdhaven and the stuff in the precinct there—it makes the department coffee here taste good. I was surprised when I had some during my interview, but this puts that all to shame.”

“I think you all overestimate my talent for caffeinated beverages,” Alfred said, and Barbara smiled when she saw him blushing.

“That's only because they haven't tried your cookies.”

“I think you give them too much esteem, Master Richard,” Alfred said, turning around with a smile. He stiffened when Dick embraced him, but he _did_ smile. “Ah, Timothy. You have not been around of late. I have missed you.”

“I'm sorry. I just...”

“Tim's got a girlfriend.”

The boy's cheeks flushed redder than Barbara's hair. “I do not!”

She fought laughter as Dick reached over and ruffled Tim's hair. He smiled at the boy, and Tim seemed to be trying not to smile back. Dick left him standing there and went to the counter. He picked up a cup and poured himself some coffee. She waited for a moment, letting him enjoy some of it before joining him at the counter.

“So, I take it Tim's not your witness?”

“No, the... girl might be, and right now, I can't find her,” Dick admitted, making Barbara want to flinch. She shouldn't, but with the odds against Tim's friend being found alive, she wanted to.

“What do you need?”

“Anything you can get me from the original crime scene and a few other places, maybe. I didn't stop to gather as many samples as I would have if I didn't have Tim with me, but I'll revisit them as soon as I make sure she's not here.”

Barbara nodded. “You brought Tim here to distract him?”

“Bruce is apparently out of town and so are his parents. I hate leaving him here when Damian's here and the kid is already having... issues, but I can't take Tim where I need to go.”

“You're right. There is, however, someone you _could_ take.”

Dick frowned at her. “I like working with you in the field, and if you didn't mind, I'd send you off to a couple of places where I wanted to get forensics, but I know I can't ask that of you. You have more important things to do.”

She laughed. “You are endlessly optimistic, Detective Wonder. I wasn't talking about me.”

“Oh, no. Hell, no. Those two transfers can find their way around Gotham without my help. I don't do the hero cop thing.”

She stared at him, unable to contain her amusement. “Dick, you _are_ a hero cop.”

“Since when?”

“Since before you were a cop, really,” Barbara told him, still laughing. He rolled his eyes, and she shrugged, still enjoying the moment. “And I wasn't talking about Bard or Gage. I meant to do this sooner, but say hello to Amy. Amy, this is Dick Grayson. Dick, this is Amy Rohrbach. She's another new transfer, but from Blüdhaven.”

“Blüdhaven, huh?” Dick asked, setting down his coffee to hold out his hand to Amy. “Had things gone differently, we might have ended up working together.”

Amy frowned. “How do you mean?”

“I considered joining the force in Blüdhaven.”

“You're kidding,” Amy said. “Why would you do that? I mean, I know that sounds strange coming from someone who was a cop there, but the whole department was corrupt. The mayor was corrupt. There wasn't anyone in Blüdhaven that wasn't, or so it seemed most of the time.”

“I know, but that didn't mean the city didn't deserve to have a few non-corrupt cops on the payroll. In fact, it just meant that they needed it more. Besides, I kind of thought that way my mentor wouldn't be looking over my shoulder the entire time and butting into my cases. That was old when I was twelve.”

“Twelve?”

“Dick solved his first case at ten,” Tim piped up. “The papers were all over it, call him the Boy Wonder. He was awesome.”

Amy's eyes went to Dick again, and he shook his head. “It was a publicity stunt—”

“That's what he says now, but I know he's lying because Bruce would never let him take credit for a case and because he _is_ a good detective and because—”

“Tim,” Dick said, giving him a pointed look. “Why don't you go see if Stephanie's here? That was why we came, after all.”

“Okay,” Tim said, rushing off to do what Dick asked. Alfred frowned as the boy bumped him in his eagerness to please—though his worry for his friend might have been part of that, too.

“Sorry,” Dick said. “Tim hasn't gotten past the hero worship phase. I figure a few more years as a teenager and he'll hate me just as much as any kid hates his parents during those years. Or maybe I'm just stereotyping badly. I don't know. My childhood was not... normal.”

“That's an understatement,” Barbara said, and he shrugged. She didn't think it was right to drag all of that out in front of Amy. If Dick decided to work with her—and Barbara hoped he did because she'd worry about him less if he had a partner—then he could tell her himself just how messed up his childhood was—assuming he _chose_ to do that. “I should get back to the lab. Since you have to wait for Tim to find Stephanie, you could let Alfred look over those bruises you got playing with Damian the other day.”

“You're evil,” Dick breathed out even as Alfred sprung into motion.

“You're hurt? Where?” Alfred asked. “Come, come, now, Richard. Let me see.”

“It wasn't Damian, though trying to teach him sports was not the best idea I ever had,” Dick admitted, and Barbara leaned back, finishing off her coffee with satisfaction as Alfred started fussing over Dick.

* * *

“You okay over there, Rohrbach?” Dick asked, trying to push Alfred away from one of the worst of his injuries even as the older man stubbornly insisted on treating what didn't need to be treated. He swore he'd heard the other cop say something, and he should probably mention that most of these scars had nothing to do with being a cop.

“Oh, I'm fine. Just reminding myself how much I love my husband, that's all,” she answered. He frowned. “And it's Amy.”

“Right. And I'm Dick. Alfred is the only one that calls me Richard,” Dick told her. “And if this is going to make you rethink being a cop here—you should know I got most of these scars before I was a cop. It's a long story, but really, it's not as dangerous to be a cop here as Montoya's shooting would have everyone believe.”

“I'm not scared.”

Dick nodded. “I'm not saying you should be. I'm not going to give you horror stories or anything. I'm just... People see this and think being a cop must be the worst thing you can do with your life, but the ironic thing is—this was almost all off-duty.”

“And you decided to be a cop anyway. You have a death wish or what?”

“I have a strong sense of right and wrong and can't overlook it,” Dick answered. “I tried for a while. When I left Bruce's company, I did the normal every day work other people do, and I almost stayed there for a while, but then I noticed the building foreman was using inferior materials even though it was a big budget build, I ended up sneaking into his office and checking the receipts to find he was billing the parent company for the good stuff and using the cheap stuff, pocketing the difference. I took my findings to the head of the parent company and...”

“And?”

Dick shrugged. “And I sort of became friends with Lucius Fox?”

“You know Lucius Fox? _That_ Lucius Fox? Of Fox Technologies?”

“Um... yes,” Dick admitted, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden. He didn't know why that seemed so impossible or why he should feel like he _shouldn't_ know Lucius. Mr. Fox was a good man, and he liked Dick. He probably would have hired Dick on the spot if Dick hadn't told him that he was going to become a cop since it was too much a part of him to ignore. “Oh, did you have some kind of problem with him and your husband? Does he have work here yet? I don't know why Lucius wouldn't give him a chance. He's not prejudiced and even if you were from Blüdhaven or had some kind of criminal record—”

“It's not that,” Amy said firmly. She seemed almost amused. “It's—my husband had a few inventions, things he tinkered with when he wasn't building—he usually works construction—and he always talks about taking them to Fox but I don't think he ever will. He claims he'd never get in to see him, which is just an excuse. He doesn't think they're good enough.”

“I can get him the appointment with Lucius,” Dick told her. He held up a hand. “Just the appointment. He's on his own after that, but Lucius would give him a fair shot. He'd be willing to listen. I know that.”

“You're kidding.”

“No, Master Richard is quite correct about the fairness of Mr. Fox,” Alfred said as he applied a bandage to a scrape that did not need one. “The man has been a very generous sponsor in the past.”

“See? Alfred knows him, too.” Dick grinned and then hissed when Alfred pushed on one of his more tender wounds. “Hey. Stop that.”

Alfred gave him a pointed look. “If you would refrain from getting injured, none of this would be necessary.”

“It isn't necessary now. I'm fine,” Dick insisted, hearing Barbara snort behind him. He ignored it, leaning around Alfred instead. “Tim?”

“She's not here, Dick. Stephanie's not here.”


End file.
